So i have been back in Israel since the 10th of August, but i feel like that until mid this week, i have not really been settled. when we first arrived things were a little hectic trying to make sure the last document made it to israel that i needed before our meeting 4 days later. there is going to be a whole post on just that coming up soon. but we did go to that meeting.
after that i had brought back two IPA’s from the pacific north west, for noa’s cousin guy to try. he invited a friend and we had a really nice evening talking beer and sampling some damn good ipa’s. nothing like what you can find here.
from there, noa started school again so she could finish the last few weeks she missed when we first left to go on our crazy adventure. i held down the fort, and then we started getting ready to move out of tel aviv. what was happening was we were moving into noa’s parents house in their small village, noa’s oldest sister (adi) was moving out of there with her baby, and we were going to box up her current apartment that we had been living in so far for her, and movers would move the things then to her new apartment!
so it began, we (I) packed over 4 days with some much appreciated help from noa’s other sister, while poor noa was having to go to school and fight off a horrible cold she caught probably at school. poor thing looked like death walking, had horrible coughs, and had to go to school, study, and have her living area packed up around her. (but she is alive today. it was touch and go for sure though…..) on top of that one day we all went and cleaned the new apartment in order to clean it before everything arrived.
as i was packing the house stuff that did not belong to us, i was also packing our things and took about three trips to the village to drop off our things where we would be staying. that took us to the moving day, at which point the movers did all the heavy lifting, and we went over to the new apartment to help out there.
while all this was happening noa’s grandma broke one of her hips, and had to go to the hospital. shes fine now and recovering well, but the moving day noa was called upon for some hospital support, so off she went there for a few hours. meanwhile the movers finished unloading in record time, and adi and i whipped that apartment into shape so quickly that you would never have know she had moved… other than all the boxes…..
the following day we went again to finish the job of unpacking. and the day after that was last saturday, which we went to the old apartment in order to clean it now that everything was out of it. it was pretty crazy dusty, and we still had a fridge full of stuff to deal with.
those two days we stayed at noa’s parents, but her sister still had not moved into the new apartment yet. so we slept on the upstair couch. on the sunday noa had some tests and school that week, so we went to go stay at yael’s apartment for 3 nights, so that noa would not have to do the 45 min commute to tel aviv, and would not have to wake up as early in order to go to her tests. we brought ginger with us of course, and she always likes roaming around new apartments.
while staying in tel aviv, we went out with another couple i met from ulpan, who were themselves going on a 2 month long vacation back to the states, and i finally met up with some of my other friends from ulpan. i had not told them im in town to the aforementioned craziness, and it was nice to catch up with them and tell them about my last 2 months of travelling. we went to a really nice little hidden square which was essentially like a beer garden. i had a great time.
noa and i also celebrated 14 wonderful years together. Happy anniversary dear.
during those three nights in tel aviv, Adi moved into her new apartment, i moved some more stuff, and then finally on thursday afternoon we finally made it here and were able to unpack ourselves. i spent the evening unpacking, we even got our OWN BED finally, and boy that has been luxurious to finally sleep in our bed after having packed it up last december. either way, i got all of our clothes unpacked and most of the few other things we had brought (food, kitchen stuff). the bulk of our belongings are still packed up in storage in the basement.
for the last two days ive been doing absolutely nothing. well, thats not true, ive watched a few movies, fought turn wars with ants, organized the apartment some more, been cooking, but other than that, not a whole lot.
this morning i have what should be our final interior ministry meeting, and noa has a huge (and final) tests on monday and tuesday that she has been studying for the last few days. as of wednesday, its Rosh Hashanah, jewish new years, and i think theres 7 work days the whole month or soemthing crazy. so lots of family time coming up and LOTS of eating. looking forward to it. and thats the nutshell since we got back. and the reason for the lack of updates. they should be rolling out of me from now on, so prepare!